You can try the charcoal "odor eater" type shoe inserts too, that might help with the funky smell in the case.
The serial number is stamped into the base of the machine - once you have that you can look it up here to get your machine's age:
http://ismacs.net/singer_sewing_mach...-database.html
The dates listed are the dates that those serial numbers were released, so it won't be an exact manufacture date, but close enough.
Congratulations on your new machine!